What is FidoCadJ?
FidoCadJ is an easy to use graphical editor with a library of electrical symbols and footprints (traditional and SMD). It aims to be an agile and effective small EDA tool for hobbyists.

FidoCadJ stores its drawings in a compact text format, practical for the copy and paste in newsgroups and forums: this has determined its success on the Usenet and in numerous communities. FidoCadJ can export drawings in several graphical formats (PDF, EPS, SVG, PNG, JPG). CadSoft Eagle users will appreciate the FidoCadJLIB.lbr library, for importing schematics containing the most common symbols via a script created by FidoCadJ. LaTeX users will be happy about the possibility of including circuits in documents via the PGF/TikZ export.

FidoCadJ on an eComStation machine with Open JDK


Installing FidoCadJ
FidoCadJ version 0.24.4 and up can only run with Java 1.7 aka Java 7. The last usuable version for Java 1.6 is version 0.24.3. An English manual is available.

The used cmd file
FidoCadJ works well with Open JDK in OS/2-eCS. I have created an fidocadj.cmd file with the following contents; 
@echo off
set BEGINLIBPATH=[drive: java]\JAVA160ga5\bin
set path=[drive: java]\JAVA160ga5\bin
[drive: FidoCad]
cd [drive: FidoCad]\Fidocad
java -jar fidocadj.jar 2>fidocadj-bugs.txt
I use 2 separate partitions, one for Java and one for FidoCadJ with the files created by this program. The references used in the cmd file;

  • [drive: java] = station with Java
  • [drive: FidoCad] = station with FidoCadJ

should be replaced with real drive letters. Save the file and rename it to FidoCadJ.cmd. This file is copied to the FidoCadJ directory. Furthermore, different paths?, adjust according to your needs.

Create a directory "FidoCad" or "FidoCadJ". Copy the file fidocadj.jar to this new directory. Create a new program object. Enter at Path and filename: "[drive: FidoCadJ]\FidoCad\fidocadj.cmd". In the tabpage Session check the boxes "OS/2 window", "Running as an icon" and "Close Window to end program". In the tabpage General you can enter the name "FidoCadJ".

Parameters / options explained
  • The addition "2>fidocadj-bugs.txt" will ensure that all bugs are saved in the file "fidocadj-bugs.txt". The 2 in "2>" is not a typo!

Download
In the file the discussed cmd file (all drive letters are set to C :) and OS/2 FidoCadJ icon: FidoCadJ-eCS.zip.

revision January 28, 2018